Background
Albertoni was born into a wealthy and prominent family in the Roman nobility.
Albertoni was born into a wealthy and prominent family in the Roman nobility.
Her feast day is January 31. Ludovica and her new spouse moved to Trastevere, where they raised three daughters. Not long after this loss, Albertoni joined the Third Order of Saint Francis at the Franciscan Church of San Francesco a Ripa in Rome.
As a tertiary, Ludovica spent her fortune and ultimately sacrificed her health caring for the poor.
She was renowned for her religious ecstasies (including levitation), and became known as a miracle worker Albertoni died of a fever on January 31, 1533, at the age of sixty.
Some 140 years later, on January 28, 1671, she was beatified by Pope Clement X. The cause for her canonization is still pending. Albertoni is best commemorated through Gian Lorenzo Bernini"s sculpture, Beata Ludovica Albertoni (1672-1674), housed in the Altieri Chapel in the Church of San Francesco a Ripa.
The recumbent statue captures Blessed Ludovica in her death throes, portraying her as suffering but also in the light of her religious ecstasies as she awaits union with God.